Orleans jury expected to weigh case of KIPP student's 'execution'

Eric 'Teddy' Adams, 22, faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted of the second-degree murder of 15-year-old Christine Marcelin, who was shot to death in April 2012.

Eric 'Teddy' Adams, 22, faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted of the second-degree murder of 15-year-old Christine Marcelin, who was shot to death in April 2012.(Courtesy of Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office)

The murders of two 15-year-old KIPP Believe College Prep students in April 2012 deserve to be solved, but not at the expense of railroading the wrong suspect in the only case that has seen an arrest, a New Orleans jury was told Tuesday (Aug. 22).

Deliberations were expected to begin early in the evening in the weeklong murder trial of Eric "Teddy" Adams. Authorities accused Adams, 22, of fatally shooting eighth-grader Christine Marcelin on April 30, 2012, in retaliation for her perceived involvement in the killing of his younger brother Brandon Adams near a Desire-area park three days earlier.

Orleans Parish prosecutors Alex Calenda and Irena Zajickova described Marcelin's slaying as "an execution." The girl was found face-down in a vacant lot in the 5000 block of Alcee Fortier Boulevard, having been shot 14 times with a .40-caliber handgun. Most of her wounds indicated her killer stood over her as she knelt, and kept shooting after she fell.

"The person that killed Christine had a personal vendetta against her," Zajickova told jurors. "That was Eric Adams, who felt she had set up his brother Brandon."

Defense attorney John Fuller, who delivered a nearly two-hour closing argument in Criminal District Judge Tracey Flemings-Davillier's courtroom, derided the state's case as woefully insufficient. Throughout the trial, Fuller and co-counsel Gregory Carter accused New Orleans police homicide detectives Sgt. Wayne DeLarge and Gregory Hamilton of sloppiness and prioritizing Marcelin's murder over that of Brandon Adams.

"The double standard is all over the case," Fuller said. "Sometimes it's OK to admit you're wrong. But do you think a detective is going to admit -- after five years -- that he's got the wrong guy?"

Prosecutors tried to prove Eric Adams guilty of second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. But the state's presentation was devoid of eyewitnesses, video surveillance or scientific evidence explicitly linking the defendant to the crime.

The state offered tower-location data gleaned from two unrecovered cellphones belonging to the victim and defendant that appeared to show similar movements toward and away from the remote area of New Orleans East where the girl's body was found. Prosecutors also presented a pair of witnesses who testified that Adams bragged about killing the girl while they were jailed together inside the former Orleans Parish Prison. One of the two received sentencing considerations in his own unrelated case in exchange for his testimony, which Carter said should make the testimony suspect.

"He tried to impugn me," Calenda said. "He called me the 'jail whisperer' and said I'm out there orchestrating for people to come in and lie. If you think I'm going to risk my law license, my career, over some kind of cover-up, then vote 'not guilty' and send (Adams) home."

Prosecutors said Adams, who was shot in the leg and back in the same ambush that left his brother dead, conspired with his own family members to conceal the retribution murder of Marcelin.

They reminded jurors that Adams' relatives claimed not to remember when the girl left a vigil for Brandon Adams at their St. Ferdinand Street house on April 29, nor whom she left with. The assistant district attorneys also noted that the defendant's mother Shawan Adams and his aunt Vonterence Adams each claimed to have taken Eric Adams' cellphone away from him, one before Marcelin arrived at their house, the other after Marcelin supposedly left with an unknown driver. They said Eric Adams obstructed justice by defying two search warrants aimed at recovering his phone.

"That phone shows the deception the Adams family has perpetrated since 2012 to avoid the arrest of Eric Adams," Zajickova said.

But the only person to testify that Marcelin got in a car with Eric Adams for a ride back to her home Uptown was her cousin Crystal Scott. Scott said her cousin told her she was catching a ride with "Brandon's brother," but did not make the important revelation to authorities until earlier this year. Coincidentally, Fuller said, her claim came on the day her boyfriend was facing off against Calenda in an unrelated case.

"How convenient, a month before trial," Fuller mused. "That would be 'smoking gun' evidence. And she wants you to believe she lives with 'smoking gun' evidence for five years and suddenly drops the bomb on the day Alex Calenda appears on her boyfriend's case? That's outrageous. And it's totally improper.

"I understand why she lied: Because in her mind, (Adams) is guilty, so she feels it doesn't matter. But that's how innocent people go to jail and die in prison."